Ryan Pratt

I’ve experienced this myself — when a company I worked for briefly split in two and became one company with two websites. It was a difficult decision, and even more difficult transition.

There are the obvious complications that come with re-branding a business: new logos, new colors, new business cards, new letterheads, etc. These are the same problems transitioning companies have dealt with for years. But today there is so much more to worry about.

Today, rebranding businesses have to consider the transitions in the digital world as well. 

There’s website domains. Is your URL available? Or how much is it going to cost you to purchase it from that squatter?

There are SEO effects. Sure 401 redirects will combat a complete domain swap. But all the work you’ve done creating inbound links from other highly-ranked websites; all the research on META tags, keywords, and descriptions; and any positive effects you’ve received from social search (SPYW) is as worthless as having a Facebook page with zero “likes.”

Which leads me to the biggest issue — and the one that eventually put an end to Netflix’s rebranding fiasco — is the question of what to do if your handle isn’t available on the social networks?

Just as there are domain squatters for URLs, there are Twitter and Facebook handle squatters. As soon as it becomes apparent any social network is the “next big thing” and opens itself up to business and companies, users sign up and sit on social network names. Heck, I’m not even squatting and I have 27 Twitter accounts and 13 Facebook usernames. But unlike URLs which have democratic companies monitoring and maintaing these domains (i.e. GoDaddy), social network handles are a ruleless wild west for name-squatting cowboys (and cowgirls).

The moment Netflix announced they were rebranding their DVD mailing service as Qwikster people jumped on net and blew up search engines with the term “Qwikster” — which inevitably lead them to find a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Elmo who already owned the Twitter account for @Qwikster. It was major flaw in C-suite’s plan for Netflix. Something you’d expect a company as successful as Netflix to have thought of. But they didn’t. And they soon lost the quickdraw gun fight with Jason Castillo (aka @Qwikster) who’s since cleaned up is act a bit — changing his profile picture to a crest and washing his mouth out with soap — but not before single-handedly putting an end (and some bad PR) to the Netflix / Qwikster debacle.

Seth Godin recently retitled his book “All Marketers are Liars” to “All Marketers Tell Stories” — but I think he was closer the first time around. He should have stuck with his gut on this one.

The truth is, “all marketers fib.” They don’t necessarily tell full blown lies. And they’re not just telling stories (because they are in fact trying to sell you something). But they are attempting to persuade in the most effective and engaging way. And most of the time, that includes a little white lie.

So what is a “white lie” you ask? A “white lie” can be a manipulation of data, ghost written testimonial, skewed timelines, leading questions in a survey, or a simple confusion of correlation and causation. It happens all the time, in every industry, on every channel, in all facets of the function. And its not just the big name brands with big budgets, or the small-time companies trying to get a leg up on the competition.

All marketers fib.

Do you know what a QR code is? Do you know what to do with one? Data suggests not.

According to this infographic, just 52% of you have even heard of or seen a QR code, and only 26% have actually scanned one. I’ll admit, I was part of that 74% until just last weekend.

Last weekend I was the first of my friends to arrive at Happy Hour at a local Irish pub, Brazenhead, and while waiting for my friends and my Black & Tan I noticed the Heinz ketchup bottle had a QR code on it. I was bored, not yet drunk, yet slightly curious, so I decided to give it a try. If you didn’t know, I am quite the technophile, and a marketer, but even I wasn’t sure if I needed an app or if my phone’s camera could somehow automagically take a picture of this “code” and actually tell me something. I quickly realized that couldn’t be, but figured, most likely, that…

There’s an app for that.

So I pulled out my iPhone, downloaded an app, and scanned this strange black-and-white square code-y thing.

Despite the narrative this whole process took mere seconds, but just as quickly, I was disappointed. The “offer” had expired, the website 404’d, and the entire experience was ruined. Fortunately, my beer arrived soon thereafter, and I hadn’t even thought about it again until now. Or QR codes for that matter. But it’s a lesson to any marketer considering a QR code campaign. If even I, a technophilic marketing millennial, don’t use these things unless extremely bored, sober, lonely, and it’s literally right in front of my face:

What’s going to entice some random person scan one? 

Content has stepped down from the marketing throne and handed the new sales crown to it’s rightful owner — conversation.

For years, content was king. Content was the key to any successful website, service, product, or offer. Without content, you were just a salesman with a sales pitch. And that sales pitch was all-too-obvious to customers. An easy way around the cold calls and sell sheets was to create content that drove people into the funnel on their own. This funnel then filled with self-selecting interested customers — if they liked your content they more than likely would like your offer — who quickly moved through the funnel from lead to opportunity to sale.

Creating interesting and relevant content WAS the easiest way to generate leads and drive sales.

But now, conversation is king. Though content is still just as important as ever — conversation is even more importanter than ever.

Conversation is simple by definition. It’s the act of having meaningful conversations with customers and prospects. And not just over the phone or in person at conferences, conversation now occurs online — on social networks.

The same social networks that once depended on interesting content for sharing and liking — now need that content to generate interesting conversations. Without interesting conversations, your content and offer get lost amongst the clutter.

Most social networks and search engines today depend on algorithms that are smart enough to not only find what’s relevant, they also know what’s interesting. Interesting content leads to interesting conversations. And without interesting conversations, you’ll just roll down the feed and disappear like crap in a toilet. Don’t create crap!

Today, everyone is online. And everyone is creating content. Not everyone is generating interesting content that leads to interesting conversations. And therefor, you’re not reaching everyone.

The surest way to reach the masses today IS to create interesting content that leads to ongoing conversations which stays relevant longer.

Today, conversation is king!

It has become glaringly obvious over the past few months that people do NOT want to be marketed to. They hate it. They call it SPAM.

SPAM is defined by Wikipedia as “the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.” And those who create this electronic spam is defined as a spammer.

But today, consumers define any advertisement that doesn’t openly declare itself as such as spam. And the same goes for marketers and advertisers. Just think of all the examples of people angered and upset over marketing, advertising, and hidden promotions lately:

• Tweets from people you don’t follow on Twitter
• changes to Facebook to improve profitability
• ads on Hulu despite it being a paid service
• ads in iOS apps on your iPhone and iPad
• Season 5 of Mad Men cutting two minutes out of each episode to make room for more commercials

So what CAN marketers do to promote their products and services? The answer lies in interesting and relevant content.

Marketers must now be thought leaders, advocates, and gurus in their industry. They must have interesting insights. They must be informative and enlightening. If marketers want to be persuasive, they must be people — not products.

Today is the day you can finally go to your corner store and buy a 6-pack of Yuengling beer in Ohio.

No more special trips to that gas station just across the River. No more “fair” trade proposals for visiting friends from Pittsburgh. No more extra-large coolers for the sole purpose of stocking up on your annual vacations to the Finger Lakes. Just hop in your car and drive five miles down the road. Whenever you want. Wherever you want. You can get it on draft at the bar for dinner or buy a case for the party this weekend. Which also means…

Today is also the day Yuengling isn’t cool.

Not cool like you need a koozie or frosted mug. Cool like “where did you get that?!” cool.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably drive through Geno’s on the way home tonight. My fridge will be fully stocked for poker night. And I’m sure I’ll have one in hand Saturday for the game. But come December, my extended-family Christmas list will not include a 6-pack of Yuengling Black & Tan. And I won’t be saving that final bottle for a special occasion. But I will be on the hunt for elusive, seasonal, Great Lakes Christmas Ale.

Which brings me to my point: Exclusivity is a rare offer today. It is something to be coveted and nurtured. Don’t throw it away for expansion. Expansion that will devalue your product in the long run and leave you with nothing that distinguishes you from your competition. Embrace exclusivity. Cherish it. Promote it. Because come tomorrow, beer is beer, and you’ll have nothing “special” left to offer.

The Missoni at Target craze is just another example of why exclusivity is rare and valuable offer in the over-indulgent, instantly-gratified consumer world we live in today.

Retail sales were actually way down in Q3 2011, but not at Target thanks to a high-end Italian designer named Missoni who created a special limited-edition of the zig-zagged line of items specifically for Target stores. Dresses that were typically $1,500 in New York were now on sale for $39.99 at Target stores across the country. But not for long.

Stores sold out of many of the items in less than an hour as people, who had been waiting in line over night, ran through the stores grabbing anything and everything they could. The extreme high-levels of demand even crashed the Target.com online store, which was down for hours as their servers overloaded with web traffic from those “smart” enough to avoid the lines. It was big hit to say the least: Missoni Stampede at Target. And Target’s 6-week supply disappeared in 1 day.

“As a point of comparison, what we are really seeing today would compare to a Black Friday morning. So, the largest shopping day of the year,” according to Dustee Jenkins, Target Vice President of Communications.

The limited-edition Missoni line at Target not only drove interest, but also drove sales to unprecedented levels for a retail store. Just proof once again that something exclusive is something of value. Don’t take it for granted. And promote the hell out of it. And Target successfully did just that.